Interesting. I think there is a sustainability to this art of personal intimacy in performance where a kind of simulacrum is created for performance that is often indistinguishable by an audience from real revelation but is not the same as revelation. I think of Carrie Fisher's wonderful Wishful Drinking. She performed it as a stage show for a long time, then filmed it... and it was scripted with improv bits. Same with Hannah Gadsby's pieces: searingly insightful, but scripted and repeated for long stretches of touring and performing. And there are a myriad of others; those are the two striking examples that come to mind. How does that work? Is it like growing an exoskeleton that looks very similar to your innards but is more resilient? Is it putting on a mask? Is it like having strategically placed windows with scenery so the audience thinks there's an "outside" past the wall on the stage?
I've always wondered about that. Many comedians do that too: they have a bit and they do all their performances in character. It seems frank and revelatory, adjacent to their real lives, but I'm sceptical. There's plausible deniability there.
I don't feel that what I am doing is at all similar. I'm a bit more resilient against public scrutiny than a normal person would be because I'm a writer (so I've seen it all before and developed callouses). But I'm not deliberately presenting a different version of myself from the real-life version. I'm not a performer (except when I dance); I don't have a stage persona. This, as far as I'm concerned, IS the real-life version.
I can think of few things I would LESS like to do than a stage show based on my own vulnerabilities. I'm uncomfortable with that kind of self-deprecatory humour, which, to me, comes way too close to self-loathing for my liking. I share things frankly, but I genuinely like myself. I'm not inviting anyone to feel shame on my behalf.
Obviously, not every part of my real-life self is revealed: for example, I don't write about my sexual experiences in graphic detail; I don't give away secrets with which friends have entrusted me; I generally don't write about things that would hurt close friends or family. Also, I don't share my PIN number. But what *is* shared is true to life, as far as I can make it.
Just such a fresh perspective. So honest and insightful. Wish I could read the Times piece !
Thanks, Andy! If you zoom in, you should be able to read it from the photo.
Interesting. I think there is a sustainability to this art of personal intimacy in performance where a kind of simulacrum is created for performance that is often indistinguishable by an audience from real revelation but is not the same as revelation. I think of Carrie Fisher's wonderful Wishful Drinking. She performed it as a stage show for a long time, then filmed it... and it was scripted with improv bits. Same with Hannah Gadsby's pieces: searingly insightful, but scripted and repeated for long stretches of touring and performing. And there are a myriad of others; those are the two striking examples that come to mind. How does that work? Is it like growing an exoskeleton that looks very similar to your innards but is more resilient? Is it putting on a mask? Is it like having strategically placed windows with scenery so the audience thinks there's an "outside" past the wall on the stage?
I've always wondered about that. Many comedians do that too: they have a bit and they do all their performances in character. It seems frank and revelatory, adjacent to their real lives, but I'm sceptical. There's plausible deniability there.
I don't feel that what I am doing is at all similar. I'm a bit more resilient against public scrutiny than a normal person would be because I'm a writer (so I've seen it all before and developed callouses). But I'm not deliberately presenting a different version of myself from the real-life version. I'm not a performer (except when I dance); I don't have a stage persona. This, as far as I'm concerned, IS the real-life version.
I can think of few things I would LESS like to do than a stage show based on my own vulnerabilities. I'm uncomfortable with that kind of self-deprecatory humour, which, to me, comes way too close to self-loathing for my liking. I share things frankly, but I genuinely like myself. I'm not inviting anyone to feel shame on my behalf.
Obviously, not every part of my real-life self is revealed: for example, I don't write about my sexual experiences in graphic detail; I don't give away secrets with which friends have entrusted me; I generally don't write about things that would hurt close friends or family. Also, I don't share my PIN number. But what *is* shared is true to life, as far as I can make it.